# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S401
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 401

“teacher’s call, a divine call.—In 1934 P. E. Kretzmann
an essay on the doctrine of the call at the Northern
District Convention. He distinguished between the duties
ublic ministry and the duties of auxiliary offices by stating
uties of the public ministry are fixed in Scripture, while
of auxiliary offices are fixed by the call of the congre-
He pointed out that the Holy Scriptures plainly fix the
:the one office established by the Word of God, but that
f the congregation specifies the scope of the duties of
, offices.48 Kretzmann gives three reasons why the call of
ian day school teacher (male or female) is a divine call:
ces a function of the public ministry; it is issued by the
tion; it is concerned with the teaching of God’s Word.
1 points out that the qualifications for the auxiliary offices
istry are the same as for the ministry proper. He states,
st significant that the Lord, in speaking of the qualifications
uxiliary offices, stresses their equality with the ministry,
to this extent.” #9 Kretzmann maintained that in the case
acher a temporary call may not be objectionable, because
is not as closely bound up with the life of the congre~
Nas is the office of the pastor. Nonetheless he lists the office
eacher among those which are “least susceptible to the
arrangement and partake to a very high degree of the
Hof the pastoral office.” Kretzmann states that a call for
ed ‘length of time would not militate against the essence of
ne call, but only against its probable most beneficent
0
we teacher’s calling flows from the ministry. —In 1935 F. Pfo-
@uer. wrote in the School Journal that the calling of a Christian
hool teacher was a glorious calling. It issues from the min-
ich God himself instituted and is an auxiliary office to the
Indeed, it is the most important of the auxiliary offices,
it concerns itself with the greatest treasure of the church,
of God. Pfotenhauer pointed out that the Missouri Synod
asized this position from the very founding of Synod,
ich as Synod had made the call of the teacher a per-
f call and because teachers were not called for a definite
f time like the incumbents of other auxiliary offices, like

the office of the teacher and other auxiliary offices, like
fand calls it “the most important of the auxiliary offices,” 51

Pp. E. Kretzmann, The Doctrine of the Call, p.7.

- Pfotenhauer, “The Glory of the Teacher’s Calling,” Lutheran
Journal, LXX (Feb., 1935), p. 241.

nd trustees. Pfotenhauer thus emphasized the distinction _

Pca, Sere

age oper Tae

SERS